The popularity of fishing has lead to the development of a variety of improvements in fishing reels; however, fishing rods remain largely unchanged. Conventional fishing rods include an elongated body having at the proximal end, a handle. Typically the reel is attached towards the distal region of the handle.
Many anglers can attest that fishing often occurs over long periods of time. Thus, in many instances the angler must continuously hold the fishing rod outward while waiting for a fish to strike. Since conventional fishing rods are essentially elongated poles, the force transferred to the handle increases as the fishing rod length increases. This is due to the force of gravity and the physics of torque. Further, since the conventional fishing rod is linear, the angler typically holds the fishing rod with a severely bent or rotated wrist, which can lead to wrist strain and injury. Although a variety of rod configurations have been proposed to address potential wrist injury while fishing, there remains a need for improvement.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,372,510 (the '510 patent) provides a fishing rod with handle device for the manipulation of the fishing rod while maintaining the forearm, wrist and hand in substantial parallelism with the axis of the rod. Specifically, the '510 patent provides a handle device wherein a handgrip projects radially upward from the forward portion of the handle, and a support means projects upward from the rear portion of the handle to saddle the arm. Two configurations are provided. In the first configuration the reel is positioned behind the handgrip. In this configuration the downward force from gravitational pull on the reel is increased at the handgrip due to torque. Further, since the reel extends significantly beneath the ferrules, the fishing line is in constant contact with the most proximal ferrule, which may decrease the performance of the reel or fishing line. The second configuration provides the rod extending horizontally from the top of the handgrip, and the reel positioned forward of the handgrip. Like the first configuration, the reel is positioned away from the handgrip, which increases wrist strain due to the gravitational pull on the reel and transfer of energy by torque. In addition, by extending the rod horizontally from the top of the handgrip, the entire rod will severely rotate once a fish strikes, which can cause injury to the angler's wrist. If the angler's wrist is not initially injured, injury may still occur while reeling in the fish. Specifically, the rod must be counter-rotated while reeling, which strains the wrist.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,992,079 (the '079 patent) provides a wristsaver fishing rod handle and system. The handle is mounted to the rod. The configuration can be summarized as having a mounting portion and two handles. The first handle is angled downwards and the second handle extends generally parallel to the rod. Thus the rod is vertically above the two handles. The reel is attached to the downwardly angled first handle. However, the device in the '079 patent provides two deficiencies. First, the placement of the reel along a downwardly sloping handle requires a special reel because the reel must be adjusted to accommodate for its angled placement. Therefore the '079 patent is not applicable to most commercially available reels. Second, the configuration risks wrist injury because the rod extends horizontally from the top of the handle. If a fish strikes the entire rod will severely rotate which can cause injury to the angler's wrist. Further, if the angler is not injured on the first strike, the angler must still counter-rotate the rod while reeling in the fish placing additional strain on the wrist. Thus, there remains a need for improved ergonomic fishing rods that reduce injury to the angler's wrist.